‘I tell students there’s no short cut to success’

Vikram Chandra Goel, the Vice-Chancellor of Chaudhary Charan Singh University (CCSU) in Meerut, firmly believes in transparency, impartiality and fairness. His mission? To make CCSU a centre of excellence, discipline and competency among the youth.

 

That it is not an easy task can be best understood by the fact that his predecessor Hem Chand Gupta, who resigned in September, had asked the Uttar Pradesh Governor to hand over the university to the Indian Army.

Goel, an IPS from the 1975 batch who retired as the DG, Chairman of Police Recruitment and Promotion Board, UP, was actually planning to lead a peaceful life. Writing and researching topped his superannuation list. So when the offer came to work as VC CCSU, Goel wasn't particularly happy. But being committed to work, he accepted the offer in March and since then, there has been no looking back. CCSU has a sprawling campus of 222 acres, 560 colleges and institutions spread over seven districts of western Uttar Pradesh.

 

Geol, who has taught at Allahabad Degree College, spoke to Siddheshwar Shukla and Prakash Arya, in an exclusive interview. Excerpts:

 

The most important issue at that time was the lack of discipline in the university and its colleges. The campus had become a place of protest by students, employees and teachers. The protestors were busy looking for issues to stage a dharna on and shout slogans. I firmly dealt with them and convinced the students, teachers and employees to perform their duties.

 

Discipline is necessary for any organisation. Without discipline, intelligence and competence are useless. I imbibed the sense of discipline from training in the police academy and practised it throughout my life. My experience in teaching and interest in research has enriched my capability to understand the issues of the young generation.

 

The first challenge was to regularise the academic calendar and improve the examination evaluation system. I introduced the coding system in the evaluation process of B. Ed which prevented undue contact between teachers and students — thus stemming corruption. This is now being implemented in all the courses. The teaching quality is also being improved. I myself take part in the Research Development Committee meetings to improve the standard of academic research.

You launched the online registration system for entrance examinations this year but it has been facing flak...

The faults are not in the system. The problem arose because the applicants entered wrong data. There are around 2,000 complaints from 2.5 lakh applicants. This is a new system and things will fall in place from the next session. We have started a facility centre in the university campus for the same.

 

We have hired some staff on ad-hock basis and will advertise to fill the vacancies.

 

I am not against elections but it will be held as per the recommendations of the J M Lyngdoh Committee.

 

I am in favour of the semester system as it gives students through knowledge. The semester system has been implemented in some courses and will be announced for rest of the undergraduate and post-graduate courses at the earliest.

 

I have directed the concerned officers to provide all possible help to students who want to take up sports at a professional level. A committee has been recently formed at the university level to take care of such cases.

 

There is no dearth of talent among the youth in this region. What is lacking is facility and environment. I am committed to create such an environment.

 

I love to interact with the youth. My motivation lies in solving the issues of common man. In my assignments as an IPS officer, I had ordered that all cases should be registered and fake encounters should be stopped. I faced opposition but ultimately the crime graph came down.

 

Hard work matters ultimately. There is no short cut to success.